Improvement in securing the covers on boxes for stop-cocks for water and gas



F. H. LAFOR GE.

Securing the Covers, on Boxes for Stop-Bucks f ur Water and, Gas Service-Pipes.

No.135,822. PatentedF'b.11,1873- Fig. 2, a transverse UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK H. LAFORGE, OF YVATERBURY, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT lN SECURING THE COVERS 0N BOXES FOR STOP-COCKS FOR WATER AND GAS SERVICE-PIPES. I

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 135,822, dated February 11, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I: FREDERICK H. LA- FORGE, 0f Waterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Means of Securing the Covers on Boxes of Stop-Cocks for Water and Gas Service-Pipes, of which the following is aspecification:

The wooden boxes ordinarily employed to inclose the stop-cocks of water and gas service-pipes have heretofore been fitted with a loose cover or cap, which is commonly made of iron, and is 'apt'to be accidentally or ima properly removed.

My invention has for its object the securing of the cover by appliances worked from the outside; and consists in dogs for such purpose, capable of operation from the exterior, but arranged to catch into the inside of the box at a distance from its upper or outer edge, at which latter part the wood is apt to rot.

In the accompanying drawing, which forms a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a vertical section of a wooden stop-cock box, with its cover secured thereon bymeans of dogs, in accordance with my invention;

section of said cover detached, in a plane at right angles to Fig. l on the line :20 w, and with the dogs applied.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A is the wooden box used to inclose the stop-cock and B, its cap or cover. 0 C are dogs, connected with the cover on its inside by means of fulcrum-pins b 11, carried by projectious d d from the under side of the cover, and passing through slots 0 e in the dogs, which latter are so arranged and formed at their outer ends, as, when the cover is secured, to catch into opposite sides of the box on its inside, at a suitable distance from its upper edge. The inner ends of said dogs are pivoted to a sliding nut, D,which is operated by a screw, E, entered from the outside of the cover through the latter, so as to bev capable of being turned from the outside, and held in place from the inside by a washer or washers,

and pin 9, said screw simply having a rotative movement within the cover.

A slight turn of the screw in the one direction causes the togglejointed dogs to catch into the interior of the sides of the box, and thereby to securely hold the cover in place. A similar movement in the opposite direction releases the dogs from hold on the box, and allows of the removal of the cap or cover.

What is here claimed, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is

The combination, with the wooden box A and its cover B, of the dogs 0 0, made capa ble of operation from the exterior, and arranged to catch into the sides of the interior of the box, substantially as specified.

FREDERICK H. LAFORGE.

Witnesses GEORGE H. COWELL, FRANKLIN L. WEL'ION. 

